by Ricky Sides
***
Two days following the formation of the crew of the ship, the survivalist group voted on whether or not they would join the alliance. It was a written secret ballot. They voted overwhelmingly in favor of the alliance. They agreed that as members of the alliance they would officially become members of the Peacekeepers. The previously unnamed survival group now had a name.
Sergeant Wilcox volunteered to come onboard as the strike force leader. He would lead a hand picked and specially trained group of six men whom they could deploy on special missions and act as ground security when the ship had to be grounded for any reason.
That afternoon, Tim sought out some help for modifications to the sleeping quarters. The ship had six cabins and each cabin had three bunks. Those bunks were single size; therefore, they were inadequate for couples. He had some of the Peacekeeper carpenters work on two of the cabins to merge two of the smaller bunks into beds of sufficient size to accommodate the two couples who would be living aboard the ship extensively.
That night, under a full moon, there was a double wedding. A local minister was located to do the ceremonies. Tim and Patricia were married first, followed quickly by Jim and Lacey.
There was a feast in celebration and the festivities continued for hours. The men and women of the Peacekeepers needed this celebration. They had endured many hardships over the past few months and there would be more in the months to come. But that night, they forgot all of the hardships for a few hours.
Maggie Peterson approached the crew of the ship late that night as the festivities were winding down. She addressed them all saying, “I’d like to volunteer to be the surgeon onboard the ship. You’re going to need a doctor to assist victims and to treat any potential wounds that the crew might incur.”
“Aren’t you needed by the people here?” Jim asked.
Pete spoke up then explaining, “Maggie is one of three doctors we have with us. She is definitely qualified to serve as the crew’s physician. She was a trauma care specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She’s well known for her volatile temper and her, at times, unorthodox approach to saving lives. They brought charges against her on three separate occasions for deviating from protocol. In each case, her unorthodox approach saved lives, so the Chief of Staff ordered the incorporation of her new techniques into standard treatment protocols.”
Maggie frowned in consternation and said, “It seems that you are well informed about my past.”
“Sorry, Maggie, but you were going to be a key person to the group. I needed to know if I could count on you,” Pete explained. To the others he said, “Her service has been exemplary.”
“I’m sure she’ll do fine. Welcome aboard, Maggie,” Jim said with a smile.
Patricia said, “Tomorrow I’ll take you aboard the ship so that you can settle into your cabin.”
Jim said, “Have the carpenters customize the cabin to your needs. Since that was the last unassigned cabin, it will have to double as the infirmary aboard the ship.”
“That will be fine,” she said. Then she added, “If the casualties require more space, the crew may have to sleep in shifts carrier style to free up bed space for the injured that we need to treat. We’ll also need to see if my medical equipment will be compatible with the power supply of the ship.”
“There are converter outlets in every cabin,” Patricia stated reassuringly.
Soon after this conversation, the crew returned to their sleeping quarters. Tomorrow was a big day. Patricia and Tim had learned much from their experiences aboard the Peacekeeper and they had a list of minor alterations to the ship that they wanted to address to improve the efficiency of the craft. The day after that, they were scheduled to load the ship with supplies for their first long range patrol as a fully staffed crew. It was a shakedown trip, meant to give the crew experience in working together as a team.
Chapter 1
Far to the northwest of the peacekeepers, in the rolling hills of Tennessee, a small community was just waking to face a new day. Life was hard for the little town of survivors, but they were beginning to make some headway and things were generally improving. Primarily a farming community, they had returned to the ways of their forefathers. The farmers planted crops to the best of their ability and some of those crops were ready for harvesting. The people of the community spent much of that day slaughtering livestock. The meat from that livestock would be stored, as their ancestors had stored such meats in past generations by salt curing and smoking in a huge smokehouse, which the community had built as a whole.
By late afternoon, they had hung most of the meat in the smokehouse and the men and boys were tending the fires that would provide the smoke for the curing process. Most of the women and young girls were walking back to their various homes when they first saw the group of four pickup trucks heading down the main street of the small community and rapidly closing on their position. The children instinctively sought out their mothers as the trucks speed up the street heading toward them. The trucks slowly stopped near the assembled women and young girls with two blocking their path and the other two parking to either side of the frightened group.
The moment that the trucks stopped, two men jumped from the back of each vehicle. The men wore side arms and carried rifles. The driver’s door of one of the trucks opened and out stepped a man dressed in denim pants and a black t-shirt with the slogan “Born to be wild” written on the front in a semi circle with a picture of a motorcycle underneath. He wore dark sunglasses and on his side, he had a pistol in a holster. “Good afternoon ladies,” he said politely enough. However, his next words informed the women that he did not have good intentions when he said, “If you’d be so kind as to load up in the back of the trucks with my men, we’ll just ride back down to the meat storage building and ask your men if they’d care to do a little trading.”
One of the frightened young women suddenly bolted from the group, headed for a house just a little down the road. Motioning to two of his men, the leader sent them in hot pursuit. They caught the young woman before she managed to open the door to the house. The woman screamed when one of the men caught her roughly by the hair. The man pulled her hair savagely forcing her to turn around and bend sharply forward. He led her back up the road to the others and stopped at the back of one of the trucks. “Get in,” he said in a menacing manner and when she hesitated, he added, “If you aren’t in the back of this truck in ten seconds, I’ll strip you, hogtie you, and throw you in the back myself,” the man said. He had said this with such an eager leer that the young woman knew he was hoping she would refuse. More frightened than she had ever been in her life, she immediately obeyed him.
“That goes for all of you,” the leader said with a smile. “Load up. Now!” he demanded in a no nonsense manner.
Reluctantly, the seventeen women and eight young girls all climbed aboard the four trucks. They were ordered to sit down in the back of the trucks facing the sidewalls. “You will not budge from that seated position until I give you permission to get up. If you disobey me, then what happens afterward is your own fault.”
A moment later, the trucks proceeded slowly down the road until they reached the smokehouse. The men and boys there were startled to see their women in the back of the trucks. The leader stepped out and pulled his pistol. He then signaled to the men guarding the women and those men immediately pointed their weapons at the defenseless people at their mercy in the back of the trucks. Turning to stare at the men who were angry but didn’t know quite what to do about this, the leader said, “It’s a fine day for slaughtering livestock. Me and the boys, we’ve been watching all of you from a ways off, and we decided we’d like to do some trading for some fresh meat.”
The apparent leader of the community stepped forward and said, “We don’t have enough to feed ourselves through the coming winter, mister. We have no meat for trading.”
“Well now, sir, maybe you just don’t understand your predicament,” the Marauder
leader said with a sneer. Then casually motioning to one of the men in the back of the truck he smiled at the leader of the community.
The guard in the back of the truck grabbed an older woman by the hair of her head and she screamed in fear as he dragged her to her feet. He placed the muzzle of his pistol against the side of her head and grinned wickedly at the community leader.
The leader of the farming community slowly raised his hands in surrender. “Take it then, mister. Take it all. Just don’t hurt the women.”
“Now, sir, that’s a right reasonable attitude. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You send in men three at a time to bring out the meat. To show you how reasonable I can be I’ll release one of your people for each slab brought out.”
The old farmer frowned and motioned for three of the biggest men to comply with the renegade’s orders. Within moments, the three men exited the smokehouse and walked to the back of one of the trucks where they laid the meat on the tailgate. The guards then released three women whom the Marauder leader ordered to stand on the other side of the road. This went on until one of the men transferring the meat came back empty handed. “That’s all of the meat,” the man explained nervously.
The Marauder leader ordered two women released and said, “You’ll pardon me if I don’t believe you I’m sure. Now stand well away from the smokehouse,” he said pointing his pistol at the men nearest the building and they quickly edged away.
The leader motioned to two of his men inside the cabs of the trucks. They quickly got out of their trucks and then hurried inside the smokehouse. They soon returned and one of the men said, “He’s telling the truth. There’s no more meat inside.”
Looking at the leader of the farmers, the renegade leader said, “Well now, it seems you are four slabs of meat shy. Tell you what, old timer. I’m a reasonable man. I’ll just give you some time to get the rest. I’ll be back in three days for the rest of the meat. But since I have to return, I’ll need a bit more to cover my trouble. You understand of course.”
The leader motioned to the men and they quickly got back in their trucks, as did he. The leader of the farmers realized at that point that he intended to keep the four remaining young girls. “Wait! You can’t mean to keep them!” the old man exclaimed and started trotting toward the truck. One of the guards aimed his forty-five caliber pistol and shot the old man in his right leg. The bullet penetrated the upper thigh, just missing the bone. The old man fell to the ground writhing in pain.
“Well now, old timer, that was pretty stupid of you. Surely, you don’t expect me just to take your word that you’ll give us the meat if we give you the girls now. You old fool these hard times. A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do to survive these days.”
Starting his engine the man continued, “We’ll be back in three days. Have ten slabs of meat ready.”
Three men standing toward the back of the assembled farmers tried to break through their neighbors but their friends held them fast. One of the men shouted, “If you harm one hair on the head of my family, I’ll kill you all!”
The Marauder leader laughed and said, “The day you can take on my crew and win is the day we deserve to die, you ignorant farmer.” He gunned his engine and backed away from the farmers. He cut the wheel sharply and then drove back in the direction from which they had entered the town with the other three trucks following close behind. As the trucks disappeared around the curve, the farmers heard the wails of terror of the four young girls and felt more afraid and defenseless than they’d ever felt in their lives.
The leader of the Marauders keyed up his powerful C.B. radio he used to communicate with their base when they were out on scrounging missions and congratulated his team on the success of the raid. One of the men in the other trucks asked, “Will we really be giving back these girls? A couple of them are pretty cute.”
“Keep your hands off the girls for now. Nothing happens to them until we come back to Arley. I want them to behave naturally when we return to Arley to make the exchange. While we are making that exchange, the rest of our boys will be moving in to encircle the farmers and then we will pillage this pathetic group and take what we want. They have enough food and such stored to keep us well fed for a couple months, and a couple of the women aren’t hard on the eyes. You’ll get your fill of rape when we get back from that raid but not until we spring the attack on them all at once. We’ll kill all the men and boys and the older women not fit for our attention. The rest we’ll keep, so long as they serve our pleasure well enough. Man, coming to Tennessee was a great idea. The pickings are much better here than we’ve had in our home territory,” he concluded. He’d used the C.B. without turning off the powerful signal boosting linear amplifier that was necessary to communicate across great distances with his base, but he wasn’t worried. They were so strong nobody messed with them. Not if they wanted to live.
***
In the control cabin of the Peacekeeper, Patricia stopped recording the message she’d just overheard on the radio. She activated the external speaker and then spoke to the crew who were outside the ship seeing to the loading of supplies for their shakedown cruise. She asked them to come inside the control room. When the crew was present, Patricia reported what she’d just learned. Tim turned to the navigation console and moments later, he had plotted a course to Arley for Jim to inspect. “We can be there in about three hours assuming none of the bridges are out,” Tim said with an easy grin.
“All right let’s get the rest of the gear stowed. It is getting dark now, but we can head out at daybreak. Tonight we bunk in the ship so everyone will be here, ready to go. Sergeant Wilcox, see to it that we carry extra ammunition if you please. It sounds as if we may be heading into a good sized fight.”
Turning to Pete he asked, “Have you had a chance to figure out those battle bikes yet?”
Pete nodded his head and said, “I think we will be able to use them eventually but I doubt they’ll be of use on this mission. I have experimented with one, and it’s going to take some serious training to use them effectively. I think we should store them here at the base to lose the weight and add a few more men to this mission. I think we may need the extra personnel.”
“All right then, you see to that detail and I’ll get with the sergeant and have him select the extra men but they’ll have to rough it in the cargo bay,” Jim warned.
“Compared to the trip here, the cargo bay may seem luxurious,” Pete said, smiling briefly. Turning deadly serious he added, “We’ll need snipers. Two would be good, three would be better.”
“Are you thinking of using snipers, to protect the hostages?” Jim asked.
Nodding his head Pete added, “And to kill any Marauder who try to take other captives.”
“You know the ones best suited. Give their names to Bill. Bill, you have them report to the sergeant,” he said turning to Bill Young who nodded his acknowledgment of the order.
Lacey stopped Jim as he headed for the door. She asked, “Are we taking Evan with us on this trip?”
Jim paused and thought about the matter for a moment and then he said, “We agreed that he would be able to stay on the ship with us when we go on missions. Unless you have an objection it’s fine with me, so long as he understands that he is not to go outside the ship for any reason without our permission.”
“Then I’d better go get him and pack a few things for all of us,” Lacey said and kissed Jim.
“Just remember to pack light,” he said grinning as he recalled the disgusted expression on her face when she’d seen the size of the storage space available in their cabin.
“Evan can bunk in with me this trip,” Pete said. “You two are on your honeymoon.”
“That’s nice of you, but we don’t mind sharing the cabin with Evan,” Jim said.
“Then you folks get him next trip. I already promised Evan he would be my roommate the first trip. We get along well, and the boy likes me,” Pete said with an air of finality.
“If
he gets to be too much trouble, just say the word,” Lacey said with a smile for she knew that Evan had indeed taken a liking to Pete who seemed to like him too.
***
The crew was sound asleep inside the Peacekeeper when the proximity alarm of the ship sounded late that night. Accustomed to setting the proximity alarm when they slept aboard ship Patricia, had done so before retiring for the night, even though they were on the base.
Tim and Jim were the first to arrive in the control room. Patricia entered next, followed rapidly by the rest of the control room crew. Sergeant Wilcox stuck his head in and reported that the strike team was gearing up for battle if needed. He immediately left to join his men.
“What set off the system, Patricia?” asked Jim.
Studying the images the system had captured Patricia replied, “There’s a body of men crawling toward us through the tall grass. I count a dozen heat signatures. They shouldn’t be peacekeepers because they are coming from the wrong direction.”
Tim looked expectantly at his brother as he sat ready for orders beside his navigation console. Jim nodded and said, “Tim, take us up to twenty feet and then approach the men slowly. Pete, stand ready at the weapons. Patricia, ask the infiltrators to state their intentions.”
As Tim brought the ship up to twenty feet and began his slow approach, Patricia activated the public address system and said, “You are trespassing on the peacekeeper base. What are your intentions?”
Semi auto weapons fire raked the front of the ship by way of reply. “Return fire, Pete,” Jim ordered.
“With pleasure,” Pete responded. He fired the forward laser several times at the line of muzzle flashes.
All across the base, men and women were emerging from their tents with weapons in their hands. Within moments, they saw the battle being waged as the Peacekeeper repeatedly fired the blue laser upon the men who had invaded their base. Then they saw the yellow ray of the belly gun activated. They saw it light up the area, and they heard the screams of the men who were attacking the ship.